The VITA 65 (aka OpenVPX) specification has introduced a number of standardized backplane topologies. The major addition brought by VITA 65 is the standardization of systems that employ one or more centralized switch cards. For systems based on Ethernet, a central switch is the norm. For Serial RapidIO (SRIO), VITA 65 adds central switched architectures to the list of possible topologies that includes switch-less mesh implementations.

In the past decade digital video recording and distribution has been made much more viable by the introduction of new video compression and decompression techniques. Analog video applications have traditionally typically needed large investments in infrastructure to be able to provide any useful recording and distribution functionality (even at very low channel counts), even with the older generation of standard definition (SD) PAL/NTSC video.

Traditionally, the vast majority of deployed military radar systems employ electronically scanned phased array (ESA) radar technology, comprised of 100s to 10,000s of transmit and receive (T/R) elements. These ESA-based radar systems vary in implementation, but typically the elements are clustered to create a beamform. The resulting analog signal is then digitized. The next step involves Digital Beamformers (DBFs) that aggregate the digitized signals and then, via various mathematical techniques, generate a final beamformed image.

In the same way as one might strip out unnecessary weight in a car aimed for racing, the FMC is a performance solution that strips away unnecessary generic interfaces for direct FPGA driven I/O. But that requires knowledge to achieve the desired performance and to ensure the host and FMC module will work well together. This paper outlines some of the considerations in order to assess and the ensure that the host and module will integrate.

Digital Video Distribution is widely adopted in the telecommunications and broadcast industries. The technologies and methods for capturing, distributing, securing, recording, and displaying digital media have seen significant industry wide investment and advancement over the last two decades. Application of these technologies to the military ground market, specifically for situational awareness and low-latency applications (e.g. driving) have become realizable, and are well supported by the adoption of the VICTORY Architecture and Specifications.

This White Paper brought to you by Curtis-Wright Control Defense Solutions.

The paper will present an open standards based intra-vehicle network design approach applicable to multiple HBCT platforms using a common set of vehicle agnostic components, leveraging OpenVPX slot profiles and VICTORY Standards. Furthermore, this approach will clearly define and segment vehicle specific interfaces from the common architecture.

We will demonstrate how the approach uses line replaceable modules to support the US Army’s 2-level maintenance concept, is highly scalable, modular, and provides an affordable path to rapid technology refresh. This is accomplished using standard components (computers, network switch, and data storage modules) which can be procured from multiple vendors.

This White Paper brought to you by Curtis-Wright Control Defense Soutions.